


Let's Go Steal a Hero

by RetroactiveCon



Series: Stealing (Back) What You Want [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Kidnapping, M/M, Non-Consensual Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:49:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21633208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RetroactiveCon/pseuds/RetroactiveCon
Summary: Little Cisco Ramon is at Saints and Sinners. Leonard takes his time approaching, but as soon as the kid sees him, he leaps to his feet and says, “Someone kidnapped the Flash.”
Relationships: Barry Allen/Leonard Snart
Series: Stealing (Back) What You Want [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1565986
Comments: 16
Kudos: 456





	Let's Go Steal a Hero

**Author's Note:**

> The title is a nod to Leverage, because it seemed fitting for a heist like this.

Little Cisco Ramon is at Saints and Sinners. Leonard takes his time approaching, but as soon as the kid sees him, he leaps to his feet and says, “Someone kidnapped the Flash.”

That’s a problem. Against his better judgment, Leonard has grown fond, not of the Flash, but of sweet little Barry Allen, the kid under the mask. Of course, he’s not about to admit as much; it would severely disadvantage him in the negotiations he’s sure will follow. “That’s not my problem. Shouldn’t he be able to Flash himself free?”

Cisco shakes his head. “I think if he could, he already would have. Probably whoever has him put a power dampener on him, which means no speed.” His expression is significantly more closed than Barry’s has ever been—no doubt he still associates Leonard with kidnapping and treachery—but his eyes have the same innocent, soulful look that Leonard found so irresistible in Barry’s. When did he get weak for hopeless do-gooders? “It’s been days. His comms are disabled, the suit’s been taken offline—I have an approximate last location, but it’s heavily fortified.”

“So you thought the best person to break him out is the best thief in town.” Leonard gestures at himself. “And why exactly would I put my life on the line for the scarlet speedster, other than the thrill of a challenge?”

Cisco’s face falls. Clearly, he’d been hoping curiosity would be enough motivation. He should know better by now. “The goodness of your heart?” he tries. 

Leonard rolls his eyes. He was just getting used to this ‘come be a hero’ spiel from Barry; he has no interest in hearing it from someone else. “There is no goodness in my heart. Try again.”

Cisco sighs and rubs a hand over his face. “I think I’ve sold my soul to nicer demons,” he mutters. Leonard doubts he’s supposed to hear that, so he makes no comment. (He’s flattered, though. It’s always nice to know he drives a hard bargain.) “Uh, the people holding him have tech. Like, nice tech. I dunno, if you steal it, you could probably sell it for a good price, or keep it for yourself if you want insurance against the Flash.”

He must be desperate to let something like that slip. Of course, Leonard knows better: in the year and a bit since metahumans went public, a booming black market has sprung up for power dampeners, enhanced weaponry like his gun, and other advanced tech. If he wanted insurance against the Flash, it would already be his. Still, if Barry’s life is indeed in danger, he’ll go. He might as well let the kid believe his best offer was good enough. “So let me get this straight. I’ll steal myself some nice, flashy, STAR Labs-level tech, and in the process I’ll steal back your boy in red leather.”

“That’s the gist of it, yeah.” Relief makes Cisco’s shoulders droop. Leonard hides a smile. If he wants to negotiate with criminals, the kid needs a better poker face. 

“And let me guess, you want it done as soon as possible.” When Cisco nods, he says, “Then I can’t go in alone. I need Lisa at the very least—Mick if he’s available.” 

To his astonishment, Cisco doesn’t protest. “I just want the Flash back,” he says. His expressive eyes harden and he jabs a finger at Leonard. “If he’s harmed—a single burn, a frostbitten finger, anything—I will personally hunt all of you down.”

Leonard smirks and gestures toward the door. “I suspect you want to be in on the planning, so lead the way.”

By the time he and Cisco reach STAR Labs, he’s managed to contact Lisa. (Mick didn’t answer his phone. Leonard assumes he’s either asleep or lighting things on fire.) Upon securing a promise that she’ll be there within two days, he settles in to plan. “I’m going to need everything you have on the facility where the Flash is being held—blueprints, CCTV footage, employment records, anything you can access.”

“Well.” Cisco leaves the room and returns with armfuls of paper. Absently, Leonard notes that he’s been confined to one of the smaller labs. Judging by the dust on the countertops, it hasn’t been used in some time. “Blueprints here. Their electronic records are all stored on an internal server that I haven’t had any luck accessing. CCTV footage shows pretty tight exterior security—guards stationed at the gate, keycard access on all the doors, all that.”

Leonard glances up from the blueprints to level a glare at him. “The security details are unimportant,” he says. “I need to see a pattern of movement—who goes in, who goes out, when and at what access points. Send me the footage.” 

“Okay, okay,” Cisco grumbles. He turns on his heel to leave when Leonard thinks of one final question. 

“What kind of support can I expect from your team—Firestorm, Piper, yourself?”

“Piper’s out of commission.” Cisco rubs a hand against the back of his neck. “Uh, he went up against Mirror Master, so his sound waves kinda got blasted back at him. Fractured arms, cracked ribs, and a concussion. Firestorm’s okay, although none of them like you.” 

In another world, Leonard suspects he and Martin Stein would get along like a house on fire, to use Mick’s favorite saying. Unfortunately, this is not that world. “And you, Cisco?”

“Uh.” Cisco understands the question, though to judge from his pinched expression, he wishes he didn’t. “I’ve been trying to vibe him. I get flashes, but they’re scattered. Last I saw, he was strapped to a table.” 

Leonard’s mind helpfully supplies images of exactly what he could do to a bound and helpless Barry Allen. He shuts those images in a corner of his mind for later perusal. “They’ll know his identity by now.”

“Yeah, I know.” Cisco nods. 

“That’s why you called me,” Leonard realizes. “These people can’t live to reveal the Flash’s identity, and you know I have no problem icing people.” His heart sinks. It’s fitting, in a peculiar way, that he’s being asked to break his vow to Barry on a mission to rescue him from certain doom. 

Cisco won’t admit as much, of course. Leonard doesn’t expect him to; he’s simply grateful to have all the information. To save the kid shame, he sends him on his way and settles in to examine the blueprints. 

He works late into the night. His watch informs him that night should have fallen by now, yet the lighting in STAR Labs remains unchanged. There are perks, he supposes, to working without windows; he can almost fool himself into believing he’s not tired. It’s approaching the hour when he’ll need to sleep if he wants to be at the top of his game, but before he can find a place to lie down, there’s an almighty clatter in the adjacent lab. When Leonard investigates, he finds only Hartley, both arms in slings and an expression of mingled fury and pain on his face. 

“Piper,” he says coolly. 

Hartley jumps, spins around, and bashes against the lab bench. A cry bursts from his lips before he can stop it. “Leonard,” he replies. “I didn’t expect you.” 

Leonard gives him a deliberate once-over, letting his eyes linger on the dual slings, the tense posture, and the careful way he’s holding his head. He shouldn’t be out of bed, much less here. “Shouldn’t you be resting?” 

“Yes, but…” Hartley nudges his flute with the toe of his boot. Since he couldn’t pick it up even if he was capable of bending over, Leonard bends down and retrieves it. “Barry is still missing. I was hoping I could do something to help find him.” 

Leonard holds up the flute. There’s a half-formed idea coalescing at the edge of his thoughts, and the longer he looks, the clearer it becomes. “You can control people with this flute, can’t you?” he asks. 

“Yes.” Hartley nods slowly. “That was the goal—to create something subtler than my gauntlets. Why does it matter?”

“Can it cause people to forget something?” 

Hartley nods. “There’s a special frequency for that. The longer the song is played, the more information is lost. Five minutes erases most of a day, twenty most of a week—why?” 

“Do you have a recording of the song?” Leonard asks hopefully. Hartley’s lips twist as though he’s eaten something sour. 

“No, but that doesn’t matter. Sit down, and I can teach you how to play.” 

***

Two days later, having examined blueprints, reviewed security footage, plotted with Lisa, Cisco, and Hartley, and recorded thirty minutes of progressively better flute playing, Leonard is prepared. “Remember,” he says, “as soon as I say ‘go dark,’ I need that white noise through the earwigs.” 

“Don’t worry about it,” Cisco says. Aside to Hartley, he mutters, “You and I are going to have words about the words ‘bed rest’ when this is done…” 

Leonard leaves them to their bickering and turns to Lisa, who’s watching Cisco with an expression that borders on ‘fond.’ After the mission, he’ll worry about that. For now, he simply asks, “You know what you have to do?”

“Of course, Lenny.” Lisa adjusts her wig. With a week or more to plan, Leonard would get Lisa inside as a job applicant, a role she plays often and well. With limited time, they’d settled for combing the CCTV footage to find someone Lisa could impersonate. She’d demanded to play a redheaded employee who, thanks to a bit of quick action with a knife, is going to find her car less than serviceable to get to work this morning. “Go get in position.”

The plan, such as it is, involves a two-pronged attack. Lisa will get in, plant a bug that will give Cisco remote access to the servers, and prepare to play Hartley’s song over the speakers. Once Cisco opens a door, Leonard will sneak in, find Barry, and free him. Then, with any luck, the song will incapacitate everyone long enough for the police to arrive. 

Getting to the facility is no challenge. It’s located in an industrial park where no one would look twice at a tall chain-link fence or secure entrances. Leonard, dressed as a maintenance man, gains easy access to one of the neighboring facilities and lingers near the fence. From his vantage, he sees Lisa slip inside the facility. 

“I’m in,” she murmurs over the comms. “Heading to the server room.” 

Leonard waits, inspects his lockpicks under the guise of checking his tools, and pretends to fuss with an electronic keypad. Enough time passes that he’s about to go in anyway—Lisa could be captured—when he hears a cheery voice say, “Take it away, jerk.”

“You were silent for a really long time, trainwreck.” He tucks his lockpicks into his pocket and slips through the gate into the adjoining lot. “I was starting to worry.”

“I muted myself,” Lisa replies cheerfully. “I know how you get when you hear me flirting. Oooh, hello gorgeous.”

“Don’t mute yourself, please!” Cisco begs. “It’s the only way I can keep tabs on you. If you go silent for that long, yeah, panic happens.”

Evidently, a guard has found Lisa. She keeps up a steady stream of chatter while Leonard strides to the door and opens it without difficulty.

“I’m in,” he whispers. “Where do I go?”

Cisco hisses through his teeth. “Sublevel B,” he says. “It’s worse than we thought. Barry isn’t the only meta being held there—there’s at least another dozen.”

“I have one spare pair of earwigs.” Footsteps echo down the hall. Leonard ducks around a corner just in time not to be seen. “It sounds like the other metas are out of luck.”

“Mmm, maybe not.” There’s the sound of clacking keys. “Lemme see what I can do with the sound system. Best-case scenario, they don’t hear Hartley’s song, and the police find them and get them to a hospital. Probably, though, they’ll just wind up losing their memories of captivity, which—is that really so bad?”

Leonard isn’t going to debate the merits of induced amnesia as a method of trauma reduction, though he doubts it will be as beneficial as Cisco seems to believe. Instead, he rounds another corner, ducks into an elevator, and says, “Okay, take me down.”

“Right. Overriding keycard access…and down you go!” 

The doors open again on Sublevel B, and Leonard’s first impression is of a hospital ward. Albeit, the desk in front of the elevator is a security checkpoint rather than a nurse’s station, but beyond the desk, a single hallway stretches into the distance, lined with closed doors. The guard casts Leonard a suspicious glance. 

He’s bluffed his way out of more damning scenarios. “I’m here to see about…”

“Subject 18,” Cisco supplies in his ear. 

“Subject 18,” Leonard repeats. “Even with power dampeners on, he puts off enormous amounts of heat. It upsets the temperature of the adjacent rooms. They want me to rewire the AC unit in his cell or something.” 

The guard frowns. “I didn’t receive information about any work being done today, but I can clear it with…”

Leonard vaults the desk, plants his feet squarely in the middle of the guard’s chest, and kicks him away from the desk. His chair topples over, and before the guard can regain his feet, Leonard crouches atop him and delivers a vicious uppercut to his jaw. The light behind his eyes goes out and he slumps, unconscious. 

“Some warning about that would have been nice,” Leonard hisses. 

“Sorry, man, sorry!” Cisco babbles. “There’s a lot of information I’m trying to sort through, like those other metas!” 

“The moment an employee comes down here, we’re made.” With a convulsive effort, Leonard stows the unconscious guard under the desk. Hopefully, anyone emerging from the elevators will assume he went to quiet a prisoner and think nothing of his absence. 

“So move fast!” 

Leonard steals a keyring from the guard’s belt and hastens down the hall. The door marked 18 is at the far end of the hall on the right. The door swings soundlessly open on a terrible scene: a single metal table stands in the middle of the room. The floor around its wheels is pink—blood was spilled in quantity and not thoroughly cleaned. The figure on the table has no obvious injuries, but when Leonard opens the door, he barely stirs. 

“Barry.” Leonard runs to his side. The kid is naked, which in any other context would be a dream come true. In this context, Leonard barely spares it a thought. “Barry. Come on, wake up.”

Barry’s eyes flutter open, roll loosely, and close again. Leonard pats his cheek. “Come on, Barry. Tell me you’re still in there.”

Barry flinches away from his hand. “Don’ hurt me,” he slurs. “I’ll do wh’v’r you wan’, jus’ don’ hurt me.” 

Rage crackles like ice over all of Leonard’s thoughts. He shakes his head to clear it and frees Barry from the straps holding him down. The kid tries to swing his legs off the cot, but as uncoordinated and weak as he is, he topples into Leonard’s arms. Seeing no other choice, Leonard scoops him up and carries him out of the room. 

“You’re all right.” It’s all too easy to coo at the kid. The way he shivers and huddles into Leonard’s warmth only deepens his desire to coddle him. “You’re safe now. I just need you to do something for me.”

Barry nods. His eyes open again and fix blearily on Leonard’s face. “Anything.”

“I need you to keep these in your ears, okay?” He sets the kid on his feet, loops an arm around his waist to keep him standing, and fishes for the spare earpieces with his other hand. Barry frowns slightly at the foreign objects in his ears but doesn’t try to remove them. While he’s going, Leonard slips off his coveralls, leaving him in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, and helps Barry into them. Once the kid is dressed, he scoops him back up and carries him toward the elevators. “Go dark. _Now.”_

White noise fills Leonard’s ears, blotting out the sound of his footsteps and Barry’s mewl of confusion. If sound emanates from the speakers, they can hear none of it. This is evidently a good thing, Leonard realizes upon reaching the security desk: the guard, having evidently just woken from his unscheduled nap, is kneeling on the floor, blank-eyed and slack-jawed. 

The elevator doors open as though it never left the floor (Leonard suspects it didn’t). He ducks inside, presses the button for the ground floor, and breathes a silent sigh of relief. 

Upon reaching the ground floor, Leonard hurries out of the building. Lisa will remain inside to shut off the music when the police arrive; in the meantime, Leonard needs to drive Barry back to STAR Labs. This is easier said than done because Barry refuses to let go of him, even to be coaxed into the passenger’s seat. 

“Barry.” Now that they’re away from the danger of Hartley’s song, Leonard risks removing the earpieces. Barry clings to him desperately. “You have to let go. I’m going to drive us to safety.”

“Safe,” Barry insists, burrowing his face into Leonard’s middle. 

Leonard sighs. He’s about to hurt the kid, but in order to get him back to his friends, it has to be done. “Let go!” he snaps. Barry flinches away from him, and he uses that momentary distance to disentangle himself and go around to the driver’s side of the car. When he sits down, he expects Barry to cuddle him again. He doesn’t. 

It’s only a few minutes to STAR Labs. When they arrive, Caitlin and Cisco bundle Barry into the medbay. Leonard is left standing in the hallway alone until a door opens and Martin Stein steps out. 

“Dr. Snow seems to believe we were just in time,” he reports. “Whatever drug cocktail they had him on, Barry appears to have been on the verge of submitting. Her—our—suspicion is that once his mind broke, they would reshape him into some kind of soldier.”

Leonard had guessed something similar. “That would have been a cold day indeed,” he murmurs. “Central City at the mercy of the fastest man alive.” 

Stein nods, looking discomfited. “Precisely. Ronald and I are on our way to document the other metas and see how they fare. I suspect all of them possess the same capacity for great heroism or untold destruction as young Mr. Allen.” He steps toward the elevator. Just before hitting the button, he pauses and glances back. “Mr. Snart, it occurs to me that you stole nothing from the facility while you were there, despite Cisco’s offer.”

Leonard isn’t going to tell him that there wouldn’t have been any point. “I was in a bit of a hurry,” he drawls. “Didn’t want to linger too long and risk getting my brain fried by that frequency, now did I?” 

Stein considers this and nods. “Plausible,” he agrees. “However, I think it equally likely that you took nothing because you never intended to take anything.”

He’s correct, of course: Leonard joined this foolhardy endeavor because, where Barry Allen is concerned, he can do no less. Admitting this seems like weakness, so he drawls, “Aren’t there metas out there who require your focus more than analyzing my hasty retreat?” 

Stein inclines his head and presses the elevator call button. As soon as he’s safely inside the elevator, Leonard turns on his heel and goes in search of Barry. 

By the time he reaches the medbay, Caitlin and Cisco have left Barry to sleep. Caitlin, like Ronnie and Stein, is going to examine the other captured metas; Cisco has reunited with Lisa and is doing his utmost to keep her from seeing Barry while he’s out of the suit. Leonard bypasses both of them with ease and slips into the medbay. 

“Barry,” he coaxes. “Wake up.”

Barry’s eyes flutter open. They’re still unfocused and hazy, but he smiles and murmurs, “Snart?” which alleviates much of Leonard’s fear. 

“That’s right, Barry.” He resists the urge to run his fingers through Barry’s tousled hair. (Where such an urge comes from will forever remain a mystery. Leonard doesn’t touch people, and he refuses to let this admittedly adorable speedster be the exception.) “How do you feel?” 

Barry shrugs. “Dunno. Whatever they gave me, it just kinda made everything muddled. I couldn’t think, I couldn’t focus, I couldn’t even remember that there was anything outside that facility.”

Quite against his will, Leonard brushes his fingertips over Barry’s pale cheek. The kid’s eyes flutter closed and he turns into Leonard’s touch. With that single, vulnerable movement, Leonard is suddenly unable to pull away. If he did, he would be a monster. “And they hurt you.”

Barry nods. “The drug just makes everything so much _more._ Like, the way you’re touching me right now is the most amazing thing I’ve ever felt, and when they hurt me…” He shudders. Leonard caresses his cheek to distract him from the memory. “I thought I would die of it every time, and then I _didn’t.”_ His voice breaks. Leonard hushes him the way he used to soothe Lisa. 

“You’re safe. They will never hurt you or any other meta again.”

Barry stares up at him with wide, awestruck eyes. “You saved me,” he realizes. “You came in after me even though it was dangerous.”

Leonard smiles. “I’m a thief, Barry, and you’re very valuable. Besides, I love a challenge.” 

Barry’s answering smile is soft and sleepy and, if Leonard allows himself to read too much into it, slightly besotted. “You stole me,” he whispers. 

Those words conjure images of heists Leonard has only allowed himself to imagine in the earliest hours of the morning: stealing the Flash, tying him up, and making him perfectly happy to be stolen. “I stole you _back,”_ he corrects. “If I stole you for me, that would be a bad day for your little team.”

“You wouldn’t hurt me,” Barry says with the kind of hazy confidence only drugs can provide. “You’re good, even if you don’t want me to know.” 

Leonard started this misadventure with the vow that he wouldn’t let Barry and his merry band of do-gooders make a hero of him. He isn’t about to break it now, no matter how sweetly Barry leans into his caresses. “A good thief,” he says. “On which note, if you need anything stolen—or stolen back—you know where to find me.” 

That isn’t going to discourage them from dragging him into more of their schemes and making more of a hero out of him. Leonard still can’t say when he became weak for these hopeless do-gooders, but as he turns away from Barry’s sunshine smile, he can at least identify why.

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to come yell at me about fandom things, I'm also on Tumblr at [achangeinpriorities](https://achangeinpriorities.tumblr.com/).


End file.
